Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Benevolence of the Universe is that it is the foundation of all existence.

That the universe is so marvelous and wondrous that matter and life forms in all their varied glory exist as far as the eye can see, as far as the ear can hear, as far as one can think. Existing in ways which add splendor to each other's existence.

The infinitude, and splendor, of the universe is its benevolence and its perfection.

I exist in this universe as a flesh and blood body, aware and conscious. And miracles don't come bigger than this.

Existence is the miracle, the implicit is the profound.

I, as matter made aware, am completely safe in this universe, as old age, disease and death is just a modification of matter, and is as well a part of this perfection. This particular body will disintegrate in due time, just as it formed as an agglomeration over the last few decades, and only "I" in my perversity seek to preserve myself as this body and as "me" for all eternity. It is not required.

Survival is not the be all and end all of human life. Death is not the calamity that "I" fear. Death and Disintegration is part of perfection.

As the illusory world of "me" and "my feelings" feels threatened, a fellow human being can pursue a path of mayhem, misery, malice, malevolence, murder, malignance, meanness and mordacity directed at another fellow human being.

And in such a field of aggression, the life of this body can be extinguished, the sustenance of this body can be looted, the security and comfort of this body can be attacked and destroyed, the limbs can be chopped off, the head bashed, the arms broken, the legs fractured, the toenails taken out, the face slapped, the jaw broken, the teeth smashed, the hair pulled out, the back whipped, the viscera pumped with bullets and knives, the body jailed and tortured, and killed...

And still...

That the universe is so marvelous and wondrous that matter and life forms in all their varied glory exist as far as the eye can see, as far as the ear can hear, as far as one can think. Existing in ways which add splendor to each other's existence.

And still...

The blue azure of the sky continues to shine in its brilliance, the earth continues in its stillness around the sun, the stars continue to sparkle in the endless dark of the night, and matter, right from the largest of constellations to the myriad atoms, continues to exist in the perfect stillness of this moment.

Peace to all, May all Beings be extinguished, and with it all suffering, all malice, all the impediments to freedom and to the experiencing of perfection in this life-time, on this earth, as this flesh and blood body.

18 comments:

If every one of us can live and feel the way it is written here, how wonderful the whole existence in the perception of every human being. If the beauty of the existence is seen by every human being, will there be the path of mayhem, misery, malice, malevolence, murder, malignance, meanness and mordacity etc. will be there in the life of our fellow human being.

It can be well understandable as words and idea. But is it becomes part of our life? For me, it is not yet. As long as I am longing for it, it looks like moving away from my perception. When I understand, by mere longing and desire, this state can not be reached and hence stop my longing, the whole perception is fading away.

If the longing and desire for this perception takes away the whole perception from me, then my fellow human being who is not worried about such things must be living in such a sate of perfection. But from the way he lives with suffering and pain, he is not.

Hence the only possibility to have such a state of perception is that we should be having the awareness of such a state and longing for such a state, but should be untouched by the awareness and longing. As an idea, it looks great. But, how can one integrate this idea into our life? How can one be in such a state with the current life style? Should we forgo our life then? If so, it will be mere escapism.

I have one objection, but, perhaps, it is just semantics. You say, "I exist in this universe as a flesh and blood body, aware and conscious. And miracles don't come bigger than this."At this universal scale, of what significance (yet miracle) is human consciousness? It is significant to humans, but is that just our self-centered thinking ignoring the myriad outputs & functions of the Universe?

Also, this statement of miraculous consciousness seems to contradict your closing statement: "...May all Beings be extinguished, and with it all suffering, all malice, all the impediments to freedom..."A miracle being a rare phenomena, yet positive and welcome—how is consciousness a miracle when you conclude it brings suffering and malice (or awareness of such).

It is the most wondrous of miracles indeed that matter can evolve to a conscious state. Don't you think?

As to the extinguishing of Being, admittedly, this is a rather cryptic statement perhaps only comprehensible to someone familiar with Actualism (http://www.actualfreedom.com.au).

I am wishing for the extinguishing of the sense of "self", "ego", "Self", "Being" or "Soul", (going beyond spirituality, which is content with the death of the ego, and not of Being in toto). I am not at all hinting at an end to consciousness, consciousness is pure when unimpeded by the illusion of oneself as a psychic entity.

"It is the most wondrous of miracles indeed that matter can evolve to a conscious state."

With this statement, you have have made a point about the core of human existance.

"going beyond spirituality, which is content with the death of the ego, and not of Being in toto"

Is it the definition of spirituality? I do not think so.Any one who looks beyond the psychological life can be termed as spiritualist and the life of such person is spiritual life, and it doesn't matter where he stands in this path.

Adding on to what has been written: This universe, the only universe that there is, has given birth to me, it has, and will sustain me, and end me-all quite magnificently, at that.(me as in this human body). All "I" need to do is step of "my" puerile world-view- from reality into actuality; from being an entity trapped within a body to being this body- these senses and these thoughts. Step out of the real world into the actual world and leave me'self' where "I" belong.

The blogged article is prima facie thought provoking. But deeply analysed it is conceptually incorrect, factually wrong, full of contradictions and to sum up written by a convoluted personality who is tormented by self inflicted conflicts. To illustrate on facts:-A) Life does not exist as far as eye can see. There is no trace of life on sun and moon and both are visible to naked eyes.B) Universe is benevolent is a doubtful fact. Ask cancer patients, refugees who die of malnutrition or young girls forced in prostitution or those caught in conflict in war zones to state the latest the Tamil civilians maimed and dead in between LTTE/Sri lankan military apparatus.C) Existence of author is no miracle. Billions are existing like him because of human union between male and female bodies. This has happened historically also. Miracles by definition are uncommon occurrences and not commonplace happenings. maliceNow on concepts. Author seems to suggest that survival is not the be all and end of all life. If not then why worry to pen/type threat to self from malice etc. and fear of attack to physical aspects of life and limbs. 2nd fault conceptually is that so long author is comfortable life is fine for all otherwise as he suggests in the end “ May all Beings be extinguished”. This points to the core of author’s conscious which wants to assess the universe to benevolent but will not let life of anybody survive if author is not able to enjoy the benevolence. This conceptually proves author is aware universe is not always benevolent but has stated it to be so. As far as contradictions are concerned it suffice to point out that after wishing all beings death (another name of death is extinguishing), author in the same breadth wishes all peace. Peace of DEATH perhaps.

I would like to put forward my views for the above comments, even though I am not aware of the context in which the author has written this blog and also not aware of the context in which the above commentator put forward his comments.

But it can be clearly understood that both of them are in different dimensions of perceptions. Because of this difference in the frame of reference in which the commentator sees this writing, definitely he/she is not wrong. He/She is completely correct at his dimension of perception. But he/she should have tried to see the writing in another dimension of perception/understanding.

“A) Life does not exist as far as eye can see. There is no trace of life on sun and moon and both are visible to naked eyes.”I do not understand what he/she means by “life”. The Sun and moon it self are life forms. They have enormous energy with in them selves. Sun and Moon have the strong desire to survive like any other life forms known by the commentator. Sun and moon are moving, controlling and controlled by others same like the other life forms known by the commentator. Probably sun and moon are not having the consciousness as like the other life forms known by the commentator. If one can not see the life with in the inanimate objects, one can not understand what life itself is.

“B) Universe is benevolent is a doubtful fact. Ask cancer patients, refugees who die of malnutrition or young girls forced in prostitution or those………..”Having some sort of education, intelligence, and life experience one should first turn inward and find out his/her nature before, turn towards others. Are we ready to receive the benevolence of universe? If we are not ready to receive the benevolence of universe, is it fair to accept the fact itself?

It is true that there are lots of suffering in the world. Have the commentator given the smallest thought to the reason for that suffering. The universe is the cause or we (me, the commentator, the writer of this post, and every one in the society/culture we are living) all together the cause of this suffering? When we are the cause of all these sufferings, is it right from our part to put the blame on the universe and escape from our responsibility.

The one who escapes from his/her responsibility is not a convoluted personality?

"Life does not exist as far as eye can see. There is no trace of life on sun and moon and both are visible to naked eyes."

# Matter is existent and in motion throughout the universe, and the advanced forms of matter, which have highly complex inner processes, are called as instances of life. And you are right, life as it is generally defined is yet to be discovered elsewhere in the universe.

"Universe is benevolent is a doubtful fact. Ask cancer patients, refugees who die of malnutrition or young girls forced in prostitution or those caught in conflict in war zones to state the latest the Tamil civilians maimed and dead in between LTTE/Sri lankan military apparatus."

# The universe is benevolent because it makes existence possible, and because it allows matter in its myriad glory to evolve to alive and conscious forms. Those forms can undergo pain and suffering because of their own survival instincts, but the universe also allows human beings the possibility of being free from suffering (though not from pain, as pain is required for the body to avoid harm).

"When ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul psychologically and psychically self-immolate – which is the end of ‘being’ itself – then the answer to the ‘Mystery Of Life’ becomes evident as an on-going existential experiencing; I am this physical universe experiencing itself as a reflective, sensate human being; as me, the universe is intelligent (there is no anthropomorphic ‘Intelligence’ that is creating or running existence)."

The universe is perfect, perfection cannot be composed of imperfect components, therefore as you say, nuclear weapons, communal riots, crime, poverty, corruption, Dr Pandher, holocasts are necessary parts of this larger perfection---what is the correct way of life?

Having looked at your quoted site without trying too hard to decipher it, I admire your philosophical ventures, particularly if you have found even half answers that give the kind of satisfaction you are looking out to.

Hi Harmanjit, I believe all these words come from your realization and experience and not from anti-spirituality stand. I somehow see (from your actual freedom guys) too much insistence on "I am this blood and flesh body" as against "I am the whole" (classical spirituality). Lets say you are experiencing perfection in this body and feeling the perfection of order in this universe to a *certain extent*. So, a simple question: Could it be possible that there might be next step or more realization that "part is not different from whole" or "body is not different from universe" when order of both are perfectly in phase? Could there be a possibility that Richard/others might be one step away from that (caught in the ego/quest/whatever of finding something new or different from classic spirituality findings)? I don't have any experience or insight into the matter..I am just asking..I am just a beginner/practitioner in the field of awareness/alertness (more precisely trying to observe like Krishnamurti suggested - but please don't judge me by my teacher)

# "I am this flesh and blood body, apperceptively aware" /is/ the great breakthrough of actualism, so no wonder you perceive that actualists are quite insistent on this. It is similar to, say, Galileo being "too insistent" on saying that earth goes around the sun and not vice versa.

"Lets say you are experiencing perfection in this body and feeling the perfection of order in this universe to a *certain extent*."

# Um... The "feeling the perfection of order in this universe" (as perhaps, contrasted with the "feeling the imperfection of chaos in this universe") is not at all the same as the inherent perfection of this universe (that includes chaos, order, mayhem, benevolence, savagery) that becomes apparent when "I" am temporarily in abeyance.

"So, a simple question: Could it be possible that there might be next step or more realization that "part is not different from whole" or "body is not different from universe" when order of both are perfectly in phase?"

# Once again, the perfection is not the perfection of orderliness (as there is ample chaos in Brownian motion, of in a volcanic eruption) but is the inherent perfection of existence. As to the "next step or more realization", since you are not able to comprehend the nature of the experience of perfection, such questions would be premature. Unless I am failing to understand your point.

"Could there be a possibility that Richard/others might be one step away from that (caught in the ego/quest/whatever of finding something new or different from classic spirituality findings)?"

# It is quite the opposite actually. Spirituality is concerned with the death of the ego and exaltation of the soul, whereas actualism goes beyond spirituality into the death of the ego, as well as the death of the soul: total annihilation of the psychic identity and its constituent passions.

"I am just a beginner/practitioner in the field of awareness/alertness (more precisely trying to observe like Krishnamurti suggested - but please don't judge me by my teacher)"

# Why this preemption of being judged? Since you seem to like Krishnamurti enough to follow his suggestions, also be ready for criticism of Krishnamurti (and hence of your following of him). :-) As for being alert/aware/observant, Krishnamurti's choiceless awareness and observation of the observer is very different from the attentiveness-cum-investigation involved in actualism. Actualism delivers an actual, incremental freedom, whereas choiceless awareness delivers a dissociated bliss where one feels the "other's presence in the room".

On "actual, incremental freedom", From my experience of practising of kinds of methods that i came across, "incremental" is ultimate weapon used by the mind. But there is no progressive shifts in the states of the mind (both in getting out of conditioning or getting out of instinctual passions). Either you are empty(aware) or filled-with-something.

Regarding incremental freedom, I think you mean freeing yourself from conditioning. But even though you are free of all, it doesn't mean you are free forever because it means that you are still *vulnerable* towards new conditioning (although you strive hard to maintain your full awareness). I guess this state is called "Manolaya" which is crossroads as per Patanjali(just guessing..no hands on experience). After this comes, come a rush of energy into the being through which the realization happens..here not only the perspective changes but the whole psyche or self itself reaches a level where it cannot come down (or to normal vulnerability - but don't get this word wrong...i know people say being vulnerable is the real freedom but i don't mean the word that way). I have heard you have intense out of body experiences (from Sridhar). But I have a simple question: how do you know that you are getting free of some conditioning/instinctual passions (I feel some nerves getting stretched in my brain with a little sound during intense attention..happening more these days..how do you explain that?)